How many hours in preschool at 4?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Full days in day care are fine. My kid started day care so I could go back to work. She was there from 9am until 5:30pm daily from age 15 months. Her transition to preschool has been easy and she's excited to go to school every day. Her social emotional learning and her basic academics are far ahead of those kids in her class that were kept at home.

This last sentence is not true. Daycare kids do not always do better socio emotionally and academically. You don’t have this data, you’re just making personal observations and judgments.

DP. The differences in outcomes based on observational studies and "natural experiments" are small.

IMO two factors should drive parents' decisions about hours in preschool or daycare:

- what works for your family (e g if you WOH full time you need full time care, part time does not work for your family; if you can't afford a nanny or work from home and want your kids out of the house/apartment. don't use a nanny that needs to be in your house for child care)

- what child care or preschool option offers the highest quality care and learning (look for low ratios, curriculum, lo staff turnover, staff education and experience)

[Anonymous]

So this is an anecdote of two but my son who went full time had a much easier transition to kindergarten than his friend who went half time. Same preschool, same elementary school.

[Anonymous]

I have twins who were never in daycare because I’m a SAHM. They did one semester of preschool from 12:00-2:30, 2 days a week, just to get a little exposure to a school setting. Then, the year before kindergarten, they did 9:00-2:30, 3 days per week to prepare for kindergarten, but still allow us to keep doing fun parent/child classes and outings on weekdays.

The adjustment to public school kindergarten wasn’t any big deal in terms of academics or socialization. The big adjustment for them was the long day that only included one recess. They came home super tired (but not starving because they had snack time) and just felt like they had no time left to play. They needed some downtime and then they had dinner, homework, baths, bedtime. They felt the squeeze of having way less free play.

[Anonymous]

We increased our time to full day preschool the year before kindergarten. We aren't the only ones that did this. We are in a school district where Kindergarten kids have a pretty long day, from just after 9 to after 4 pm, so I think a lot of parents wanted to prepare their kids for this transition, our full day program had similar hours.

[Anonymous]

Kids are more ready for daycare than the parents who put them in there. Kids can do full days per week from an early age.

My observations as a parent line up with the PP about kids who have been in full time daycare having better social emotional skills.

Without judgement, let me just say, I can always tell kids are stay at home or not fully in a structured school environment when we are at the park or interacting with each other.

There absolutely is an advantage for kids in full time daycare who get early access to a classroom type environment. They have better social skills for a start. They are socializing outside the home and in a structured environment, vs. their peers who are not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have twins who were never in daycare because I’m a SAHM. They did one semester of preschool from 12:00-2:30, 2 days a week, just to get a little exposure to a school setting. Then, the year before kindergarten, they did 9:00-2:30, 3 days per week to prepare for kindergarten, but still allow us to keep doing fun parent/child classes and outings on weekdays.

The adjustment to public school kindergarten wasn’t any big deal in terms of academics or socialization. The big adjustment for them was the long day that only included one recess. They came home super tired (but not starving because they had snack time) and just felt like they had no time left to play. They needed some downtime and then they had dinner, homework, baths, bedtime. They felt the squeeze of having way less free play.

Homework in K?

[Anonymous]

Full day is fine. Stop worrying.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Full days in day care are fine. My kid started day care so I could go back to work. She was there from 9am until 5:30pm daily from age 15 months. Her transition to preschool has been easy and she's excited to go to school every day. Her social emotional learning and her basic academics are far ahead of those kids in her class that were kept at home.

As a mom and a teacher, I agree. Yes, there is a difference between the kids who didn’t attend daycare and those who did. Very noticeable differences in their knowledge levels, social skills and abilities with self regulation. Kids in full time daycare make a much smoother transition to kindergarten.

[Anonymous]

The longer the better but preschool typically means half day. My preschooler only goes for 2 hours! It’s not enough! Half day kinder in my district is less then 3 hours when you factored in the time home on the bus

[Anonymous]

Mine never went more than 9-12, 3x a week. They are top students as teenagers so obviously more preschool was not necessary.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Full days in day care are fine. My kid started day care so I could go back to work. She was there from 9am until 5:30pm daily from age 15 months. Her transition to preschool has been easy and she's excited to go to school every day. Her social emotional learning and her basic academics are far ahead of those kids in her class that were kept at home.

As a mom and a teacher, I agree. Yes, there is a difference between the kids who didn’t attend daycare and those who did. Very noticeable differences in their knowledge levels, social skills and abilities with self regulation. Kids in full time daycare make a much smoother transition to kindergarten.

Not my experience at all.

- Another teacher

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So this is an anecdote of two but my son who went full time had a much easier transition to kindergarten than his friend who went half time. Same preschool, same elementary school.

But the kids aren't the same.

[Anonymous]

My feeling is, it will always be a struggle to transition from lots of time at home with parents to lots of time at school in a structured environment regardless of the age you do it. I always assume the older the better in terms of cortisol and brain development for encountering major struggles. I see no advantage to have this struggle as a toddler instead of as a kindergartener.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My feeling is, it will always be a struggle to transition from lots of time at home with parents to lots of time at school in a structured environment regardless of the age you do it. I always assume the older the better in terms of cortisol and brain development for encountering major struggles. I see no advantage to have this struggle as a toddler instead of as a kindergartener.

The advantage is the parents get more childcare. Childcare can be very helpful for families financially. And mountains of research say the impact on the child is minimal, with home life much, much more important than the number of hours in preschool/daycare.

[Anonymous]

It's not about practice for kindergarten, but stimulation and socialization and learning from people other than the adults in their house.